Apocalyptic Fiction
Take a look at what life could be like after "the big one" – remember, it could be worse.
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood (Adult Fiction)
As the story opens, the narrator, who calls himself Snowman, is sleeping in a tree, wearing a dirty old bedsheet, mourning the loss of his beautiful and beloved Oryx and his best friend Crake, and slowly starving to death. As he tries to piece together what has taken place, the narrative shifts to decades earlier. How did everything fall apart so quickly? Also try Atwood’s other dystopian story: The Handmaid’s Tale.
The Postman by David Brin (Science Fiction)
He was a survivor – a wanderer who traded tales for food and shelter in the dark and savage aftermath of a devastating war. Fate touches him one chill winter's day when he borrows the jacket of a long-dead postal worker to protect himself from the cold. The old, worn uniform still has power as a symbol of hope, and with it he begins to weave his greatest tale, of a nation on the road to recovery. Also try Brin’s near-future eco-disaster novel Earth.
World War Z : an Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks (Adult Fiction)
Brooks, driven by the urgency of preserving the acid-etched first-hand experiences of the survivors from those apocalyptic years, traveled across the United States of America and throughout the world, from decimated cities that once teemed with upwards of 30 million souls to the most remote and inhospitable areas of the planet. He recorded the testimony of men, women and sometimes children who came face-to-face with the living, or at least the undead, hell of that dreadful time.
Armageddon’s Children by Terry Brooks (Science Fiction)
In this new fantasy trilogy, bestseller Brooks effortlessly connects the magic of his Shannara books with the urban, post-apocalyptic world of his Word and the Void series. The author envisions a chilling near-future U.S., where civilization has collapsed from environmental degradation, plagues, global warfare and supernatural threats. The last surviving members of the Knights of the Word, Logan and Angel, seek to keep the "balance of the world's magic in check" as they battle the Void embodied by demons, their leader Findo and their vicious human mutant counterparts known as "once-men." The Genesis of Shannara series continues with The Elves of Cintra.
The Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler (Science Fiction)
In 21st-century California, a land of walled enclaves, drug-crazed arsonists and rampant joblessness, 18-year-old Lauren Olamina discovers a new way of looking at a hopeless world. When circumstances cut her adrift from the only community she knows, she takes to the road, attempting to put her ideals into practice. Also try the Nebula Award-winning sequel: The Parable of the Talents and Butler’s Lilith’s Brood.
Folk of the Fringe by Orson Scott Card (Science Fiction)
Only a few nuclear weapons fell in America; the weapons that destroyed our nation were biological and, ultimately, cultural. But in the chaos, the famine, the plague, there exited a few pockets of order. The strongest of them was the state of Deseret, formed from the vestiges of Utah, Colorado and Idaho. The climate has changed. The Great Salt Lake has filled up to prehistoric levels. But there, on the fringes, brave, hardworking pioneers are making the desert bloom again.
The Penultimate Truth by Philip K. Dick (Science Fiction)
What if you discovered that everything you knew about the world was a lie? This wry, paranoid thriller imagines a future in which the earth has been ravaged and cities are burnt-out wastelands too dangerous for human life. Americans live underground, where they toil in crowded industrial ant hills and receive a steady diet of inspiring speeches from an ageless President. Nick St. James, like the rest of the masses, believed in the words of his leaders. But that all changes when he travels to the surface – where what he finds is more shocking than anything he could possibly imagine. Also try Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank (Science Fiction)
Against all the odds, the citizens of this small town are spared the immediate and worst effects of nuclear attack. But they escape neither the secondary consequences nor their own human limitations. As staples and services disappear – first the phone lines, then money, then gas, then electricity, then food and medications, then running water – they cope with a world in which, in a single day, a thousand years of civilization have been stripped away.
The Children of Men by P.D. James (Science Fiction)
The year is 2021, and the human race is – quite literally – coming to an end. Since 1995 no babies have been born, because in that year all males unexpectedly became infertile, and no child can ever be born again. Civilization is giving way to cruelty and despair, and historian Theo Faron has nearly resigned himself to apathy. Then he is asked to join a band of revolutionaries – a move that may hold the key to humanity's survival.
The Stand by Stephen King (Horror)
The world ends with a nanosecond of computer error in a Defense Department laboratory, and the bleak new world of the day after is a world emptied of 99 percent of its people. A world in which a handful of survivors choose sides – or are chosen. A world in which good rides on the frail shoulders of the 108-year-old Mother Abigail – and the worst nightmares of evil are embodied in a man with a lethal smile and unspeakable powers: Randall Flagg, the dark man. Also try King’s Dark Tower series, which begins with The Gunslinger.
Swan Song by Robert McCammon (Horror)
An ancient evil roams the desolate landscape of an America ravaged by nuclear war. He is the Man with the Scarlet Eye, a malevolent force that feeds on the dark desires of the countless followers he has gathered into his service. His only desire is to find a special child named Swan – and destroy her. But those who would protect the girl are determined to fight for what is left of the world – and their souls.
The Road by Cormac McCarthy (Adult Fiction)
Multiple award winner McCarthy offers a prescient account of a man and his son trying to survive in a devastated country where food is scarce and everyone has become a scavenger. The term "survival of the fittest" rings true here; very few people remain, and friends are extinct. Essentially, this is a story about nature vs. nurture, commitment and promises, and though there aren't many characters, there is abundant life in the prose.
A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter Miller (Science Fiction)
This modern classic opens with the accidental excavation of a holy artifact: a creased, brittle memo scrawled by the hand of the blessed Saint Leibowitz, that reads: "Pound pastrami, can kraut, six bagels – bring home for Emma." To the Brothers of Saint Leibowitz, this sacred shopping list penned by an obscure, 20th-century engineer is a symbol of hope from the distant past, from before the fiery atomic holocaust that plunged the earth into darkness and ignorance. Also try Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman.
The Gate to Women’s Country by Sheri Tepper (Science Fiction)
In a desperate effort to prevent another world war, the women have segregated most men into closed military garrisons and have taken on themselves every other function of government, industry, agriculture, science and learning. The resulting manifold responsibilities are seen through the life of Stavia, from a dreaming 10-year-old to maturity as doctor, mother and member of the Marthatown Women's Council.
Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut (Adult Fiction)
An apocalyptic tale of this planet's ultimate fate, it features a midget as the protagonist; a complete, original theology created by a calypso singer; and a vision of the future that is at once blackly fatalistic and hilariously funny. It is a book that left an indelible mark on an entire generation of readers. Also try Galapagos.